Sunday, June 22

Citizen Koch

Area Premiere!

Filmmaker Carl Deal Present at 7pm Shows on Friday & Saturday!

Brief panels hosted by Greater Boston Move to Amend will be held after 7pm screenings Sunday – Wednesday.

(2013) dir Carl Deal, Tia Lessin [90 min; Digital]
“America… they’re coming for you next.” That’s the warning from a Wisconsin state employee after her union rights were destroyed by a Republican governor funded by corporations and billionaire donors whose ultimate goal is to break the unions nationwide – and cripple the labor-backed Democratic Party.

Money has long played a starring role in politics. But the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United ruling marked a seismic shift in how America’s elections are fought and financed. The ruling was engineered in part by corporate and far-right interest groups that had long sought to undermine the influence of unions and small donors. Their subsequent state-by-state campaign to reshape elections found its test market in Wisconsin – birthplace of progressivism, the Republican Party, and government unions – and the 2010 election campaign of Governor Scott Walker.

From Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, the Oscar-nominated filmmakers who made Trouble the Water, winner of the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best documentary, comes a story about money, citizenship, and democracy. CITIZEN KOCH explores what the U.S. Supreme Court decision that unleashed a new era of unbridled special-interest spending means for us all. And it poses a crucial question: Who owns democracy in America?